"Damn you! You Winged Knight!" Xiaobing cursed as he surrendered to his fate, about to fall into that murky sea, had it not been for a giant hand appearing from nowhere and catching him.
"What is this? Is this the afterlife?" Xiaobing wondered to himself, feeling it.
No one answered him, only that giant hand made Xiaobing float upon it strangely, and suddenly a red inner cloud appeared in the air, and that hand placed Xiaobing on it and disappeared.
"What's happening?" Xiaobing wondered again, feeling the comforting texture of that cloud, and looked to both sides but saw only utter darkness... He was also wondering where that giant hand that saved him at that moment from falling into the sea of darkness had gone.
But he didn't see it when he looked to the sides, so he looked towards the sky hoping to find it, but he was surprised, shocked, and angry at the same time by what he saw.
It was the same Winged Knight from before who had pierced his body with his sword moments ago. Anger burned fiercely in Xiaobing's body... along with a suffocating intent to kill, but as soon as that Knight flapped a single one of his wings, Xiaobing's powers were extinguished and he couldn't even move.
'It's the same feeling! The one I felt when I first met the Entity in the morning! Absolute power! Damn it!' Xiaobing was surprised and cursed internally at the situation before him.
"How dare you, human!" Suddenly, an angry voice echoed throughout that utter darkness.
"Huh!" Xiaobing was surprised that he could understand the words of that Winged Knight.
"How dare you!" that Winged Knight said angrily.
"Dare what?" Xiaobing asked despite seeing that angry Winged Knight above him.
"How dare you be the next Sacrifice!" that Winged Knight said while gripping his light sword with both hands and pointing it towards Xiaobing, who was lying on the red cloud below him.
'Dare to be the Sacrifice? The Sacrifice has been mentioned for the third time today! And this Winged Knight shows hatred in his voice for the name 'Sacrifice'! Which means he is my enemy, so no need to hold back anymore.' Xiaobing thought and saw that giant sword above him and said: "Just wait! Wait for me wherever you are and wherever you go, I will find you and bring you down from your throne! You Winged Knight!" Xiaobing said those threatening words and didn't care who was before him, even if it was someone like the Winged Knight, who showed his hatred for the Sacrifice and was determined to kill him, so why wouldn't he kill him too? Xiaobing had made an organization of people his enemies, and made an entity from a world beyond the void his enemy too, so why not make the Winged Knight the third enemy?
This is truly madness, but it's reality.
"You dare threaten me, Sacrifice! Do you want to repeat history? You should never have been born in this world or any other! You are just a glitch in the system and all who bear the Path of the Mystery Gazer! You should be eliminated before you bring ruin to the worlds, so I sentence you to oblivion, Sacrifice!" that Winged Knight said in a powerful and majestic voice against Xiaobing's threatening words.
'Repeat history? I shouldn't have been born? I'm just a glitch in the system?' Xiaobing thought to himself and looked up and said loudly: "You have no right to decide if I should have been born or that I'm just a glitch in the system, and if you want me to repeat history whose content I don't know, but... I inferred it was a history of overthrowing rulers, no no... it was an era of hunting the stor–" Xiaobing would have completed his words had that Winged Knight not cut him and the red cloud in half and transformed them into something else.
That Knight didn't stay long, but soon flapped his wings and flew away, leaving a few words behind: "The era of the Great Calamities has returned!"
And he disappeared into that dark dimension.
...
"Bing!"
"Bing!"
"Bing!"
Shouts rose from outside the bathroom door, making Xiaobing regain consciousness and look at the mirror again, but with an anxious and hysterical expression on his face. But he soon hid it behind his face and left the bathroom with his usual cold expression.
"What happened to you? Why did you take so long in the bathroom like that!?" James asked, amazed at Xiaobing.
"I just answered nature's call and was delayed!" Xiaobing said while quickly passing and heading towards the hall door.
"Where are you going?" James asked while following Xiaobing.
"I... don't know, maybe I just want to go home, that's all!" Xiaobing said it while about to leave through the hall door.
"Take this!" James said while throwing a black hat and the black umbrella towards Xiaobing, who skillfully caught them.
"Thanks... see you tomorrow!" Xiaobing said while hurriedly descending from the second floor quickly, leaving James and Steaky puzzled.
He walked between the tables and chairs, heading towards the café door, went out, and closed it behind him. He put on that black hat and pressed it on his head.
The weather had changed at night, so it was cold outside the café, and Xiaobing could see his cold breath in front of him like fog.
Looking ahead at that tall, strange pole and the chain tied to it, the café's advertisement board... he moved in the same direction he took with James and Madeleine shopping today, he didn't know the city well so he relied on his memory to recall the way.
Walking on the sidewalk, Xiaobing didn't look anywhere but straight ahead, and didn't look at the buildings he had looked at before.
Boooooooooom!
Suddenly, thunder rumbled in the sky and black clouds gathered quickly, covering the crimson moon in the sky, and rain poured heavily on the street and on Xiaobing's umbrella.
Xiaobing looked coldly at the raindrops in front of him, and continued walking on "The Hanged Dreamer" street to its end, and only a little remained to reach the market entrance whose name he couldn't read earlier.
And suddenly, he glimpsed a person or a small boy sheltering from the raindrops under a coat that didn't fit him, and inside that coat were many newspapers... apparently he was a newspaper boy.
Xiaobing stopped at that moment and looked at that boy and at his hand gripping the umbrella with a cold expression.
'If I give him this umbrella, he'll be able to keep himself dry and his newspapers too... but I'll get wet from that act, and I'll reach the cold hut and the bed that might be completely wet by now, and I... suffer from colds. This act requires self-sacrifice to help others... and I'm not one of those people.
This is like being on the bank of a river flooded by a strong flood, and you have a movable dam protecting you from that flood, but on the other bank there are other people suffering from that strong flood... and you have the choice to save them by directing that movable dam towards their bank, but let the flood drown you in return.' Saying this to himself, he moved to pass by that boy, but at that moment, a girl with a brown umbrella moved and gave it to that boy.
Xiaobing couldn't see her clearly, so he activated his ability to see who that girl was, but that would have made him drop his umbrella had he not tightened his grip on it.
'Lizzy!' Xiaobing said while canceling his ability, and turned to leave when strange white smoke suddenly swirled around him.
Xiaobing stopped and activated his ability, and also moved the energy in his body towards his right hand over his black glove.
"It's me, don't worry, I won't hurt you!" Simon said while returning to his original form.
"Hahaha, you won't hurt me? But you've exposed me to the team now? Maybe I should have killed you when I had the previous chance!" Xiaobing said with complete coldness while increasing the flow of power in his hand. He recognized Simon's voice and regretted not killing him earlier.
"I'm sorry, but I've been expelled!" Simon replied quickly.
"Expelled? Hahahahahahaha how absurd! Just because you were expelled, you told your comrades that I'm an unofficial power-bearer?" Xiaobing said mockingly.
"I swear to you I was only expelled, and also I only told Lizzy!" Simon said it while standing under the raindrops unaffected by them.
"And that's the problem itself!" Xiaobing said coldly.
"What?" Simon asked Xiaobing.
And at the same moment, Xiaobing turned and looked at him coldly and looked towards Lizzy who stood next to that boy and then told him to move from here with his umbrella, and after he left, she disappeared and appeared directly in front of Xiaobing.
"Bingy! I didn't think you were an unofficial power-bearer!" Lizzy said with all warmth and tried to approach Xiaobing.
"I warn you for the last time today! If you come near me, I will make sure to turn you into scattered pieces under this rain!" Xiaobing said while raising the Annihilation Core, which was smaller than before, in his hand.
'What technique is this!' Simon wondered to himself while moving quickly and pulled his colleague from in front of Xiaobing and said: "I only came to make a deal with you! Do you want to listen?"
"A deal? Or do you want to lure me into the dragon's den?" Xiaobing asked dismissively. He was still tense and anxious about that Winged Knight in the future, and wanted to train and ascend quickly to have a chance against him and against that entity called the "Deception Beast" in the future.
"Believe me! I have no ill intentions towards you! I just want to make a deal with you! And I'm asking you if you're willing to listen to me?" Simon asked again.
'What does he want from me to make a deal? This is strange, but he's very insistent on making a deal with me, so... I should listen to what he wants to say to me first!' Xiaobing thought to himself while dispersing the Annihilation Core from his hand and said: "Alright, I'm listening!"
"Then let's go somewhere else! There's a café inside the market ahead, let's go there!" Simon said while pointing his finger back and turning, and walked ahead of Xiaobing.
'Hmph!, Hapu told me we'd be together soon, so I'll let you go this time!' Lizzy said to herself but stood and looked at Xiaobing who hadn't moved yet.
"Hurry up!" Lizzy said while going towards him... but she remembered that technique Xiaobing showed moments ago, so she stopped and looked at him while under the rain and said: "Mean!" sticking out her tongue. She was very annoyed by the rain.
Unlike her, Simon moved freely under the rain and showed no annoyance at all, rather there was a hidden joy under his serious face.
Upon hearing Lizzy's words, Xiaobing walked slowly on the slippery sidewalk, and when he was about to pass by Lizzy who lowered her face towards the ground and didn't look into his eyes this time... he covered her from the rain with his umbrella.
"Huh!" Lizzy was surprised while looking at Xiaobing who was sharing the same umbrella with her to shelter from the rain.
"What? Aren't you moving?" Xiaobing asked arrogantly.
"Ah, yes!" Lizzy said while walking beside Xiaobing under the umbrella, but she couldn't hold his arm or hug him this time, she just walked beside him, nothing more.
Simon looked towards them but said nothing and continued walking.
...
End of Chapter ~ To be continued